RCV Montana

About

A thriving democracy is one that gives voters more choice and fair representation. It values civil discourse and common ground over partisanship. We believe that a ranked choice method of voting better achieves these ideals over the current system. Ranked choice voting would benefit all Montanans regardless of political leaning or party. To this end, RCV Montana is a grassroots nonpartisan volunteer organization that aims to bring this much needed electoral reform to Montana voters through awareness programs, capacity building, collaboration with national movements, and advocating for change at the local and state level.

WHAT IS RANKED CHOICE VOTING?
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a simple upgrade to the ballot. Instead of choosing just one candidate, RCV allows you to rank multiple candidates in the order you prefer them (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on). This solves a number of long-standing problems in our American political system: the intractability of the two major parties; “spoiler” candidates; candidates who win elections without majority support; negative attack ads; and poor voter turnout and engagement. Learn more about Ranked Choice Voting from a recent article in Time magazine: https://time.com/5718941/ranked-choice-voting/

Featured page

Recent News

(May 2021) Austin, TX passed RCV proposition with 58% support: RCV could possibly be used in 2022 elections, but is likely barred under state law.
(May 2021) HB740 was passed by Texas House: it would allow voters who use absentee ballots (i.e. those who live outside their native county) to vote for primaries and runoffs in one ballot via Instant Runoff Voting.
(Apr 2021) Salt Lake City, UT (pop. 198,000) will use RCV for its November 2021 elections, along with 22 other cities in Utah.
April, 2021 - Draper, UT will use RCV for its November 2021 elections (largest city in UT thus far)
March, 2021 - HB21-1071 in CO has advanced out of two committees. It will allow county clerks to administer RCV elections for municipalities when requested, and allow municipalities to share costs with each other.
March, 2021 - Burlington, VT passes RCV for city council elections
March 29th, 2021 - Maine - A proposal that would extend ranked voting to offices such as governor and state legislature seats has succeeded in committee and will move on to the full legislature. Read the article.
March 25th, 2021 - Georgia: RCV for military and overseas citizens signed into law.
March 16th, 2021 - Utah now allows municipalities to contract with external county clerks to implement RCV - the local county clerk can no longer veto implementation. Currently, 28 of 29 county clerks do not offer RCV option. In the wake of this decision, the Salt Lake City Council is considering using RCV in 2021 municipal elections- the mayor and multiple council members are supportive.
March 12th, 2021 - RCV and is being considered by 29 state legislatures this year alone. The Pew Charitable Trusts tells the story: http://bit.ly/3rLQrqi
March 8th, 2021 - The Minnetonka, MN City Council approved the use of RCV for city elections, after voters passed this in Nov 2020. This eliminates the need for primary elections, which are expensive.
February, 2021 - Queens, NY uses RCV for the first time after Nov 2019 enactment via ballot for NYC - 95% found it to be very or somewhat simple.
2020 - Virginia HB 1103—Permitted RCV to be used in local elections.